Well, that was the plan anyway. Every parent knows that plans are meant to be broken.

JSL decided that our trip didn’t come with enough “fun” so he decided to throw up as we were getting ready. B stayed behind with him while NHL and I got breakfast from Captain Cook’s to go. Then, NHL and I caught a bus to downtown Disney with a list of items to find. We went from shop to shop, looking and occassionally buying some things. We even called B a few times to see what else she wanted.

Finally, full shopping bags in hand, we booked it back to the bus. At this point, I’d like to thank NHL. He will often complain that his feet hurt if pushed to walk for too fast, too long. He didn’t complain, though, and just soldiered on. Thanks, NHL!

Anyway, we got on the bus and it went off…. to the next stop (still at Downtown Disney). At this point, our bus driver looked back at us and informed us that his shift was over and we’d be getting a new driver. Ok, fine. We were cutting it close, but should still be fine. The minutes passed and our old driver was still sitting behind the wheel while we all waited. More minutes passed and I began getting upset. I asked what was taking so long and he finally radioed dispatch to get an update. A new driver was on the way, we were assured.

More minutes passed and *finally* someone arrived. This person wasn’t our new driver, though, but another off-his-shift driver who told our driver that he just had to wait a half hour for his replacement. Excuse me?!! I didn’t have time for this. I had to get back, get packed and get to the airport! I expressed my displeasure and we *finally* had a new driver. It might have only taken us 15 – 20 minutes, but I expect more of Disney. This was a rare slipup on their part, but it was an extremely frustrating way to end our vacation.

We got back to the hotel, got all our bags set and went to do some shopping. We still had some money left on a gift card we got from Disney (part of a deal they had when we booked our pre-DisneySMMoms portion of the trip) and needed to use it up. B went through the shops in the Polynesian and found some items she liked. Then it was on the bus and goodbye to Disney World.

At the airport, we ate lunch while killing time until our plane boarded. Of course, JSL took this moment to proclaim that he pooped. *sigh* Off I went to change him only to discover that he hadn’t done the deed. I took a second to answer nature’s call when I got another one from B. NHL had a potty emergency and B couldn’t take him because she was watching over our carry on luggage!

So I washed up and swapped kids. When NHL was done, another call. JSL was really going to need a change this time. I got out to see him hiding behind the bench. Apparently, he wanted privacy. He was going to be a few minutes, so B took her turn. Unfortunately, when she returned, she was running. Somehow, we had missed that they had called our plane. It was already boarding!

Now, silly us hadn’t eaten lunch by our terminal. No, we set up shop in the food court. Our terminal was at the end of a long hall. So B grabbed half of our bags and ran with NHL. I grabbed the other half and called at JSL to follow me.

Except JSL wasn’t.

He was behind the bench yelling “me pooped! me pooped!”

*sigh* Wonderful timing, huh?

So I scooped him up in my arms and half-ran/half-walked down to our terminal. I got to the end (out of breath) to meet up with B and NHL. We were allowed on the plane and took a seat at the back where B asked flight attendents about diaper changing. We opted to do the change on the plane’s seats despite some looks we were given to the other passengers. Sorry, everyone, but two year olds don’t always have the best timing!

Luckily, the rest of the flight wasn’t as exciting and we landed safely. Of course, while it was good to be home, we missed Disney World terribly. Until I land my dream job of being paid to take photos at Disney parks while riding the rides, eating the food and blogging about it all, we’ll just have to console ourselves with our memories, photos and planning when our next trip will be.

I also got to catch up with DaddyDigest again and explained to him what had happened the previous night. We talked for a bit before NHL came over and told me that he wanted some dessert and it was almost time to go to the second part of the night. I went with NHL, got some ice cream bars and then returned to B and JSL so we could head to the "second part."

As you might have guessed from the title of this post, the second part was Toy Story Mania. They were opening the ride just for the Disney Social Media Moms and their families. We got on line and had a blast. I rode with JSL and B rode with NHL. After we got off, we went right back on line. Unfortunately, just as we were to board the ride, NHL declared that he needed to use the restroom. I left JSL and B to ride the ride while NHL and I sought out a bathroom.

When we got back, I decided that I couldn’t let NHL leave Disney World without riding Toy Story Mania one more time. So we waited on line, talked a bit with some folks and then played Toy Story Mania again. We got out, met back up with B and, seeing as how it was extremely late, we needed to leave the next day, and JSL was already passed out, got on the bus back to the hotel.

Ok, I had Tonga Toast. NHL had a bagel and JSL had a chocolate chip muffin. They don’t know what they were missing! After we finished our breakfast, NHL, JSL and I headed to the Magic Kingdom. Once there, we called Tom and TJ to see where they were. They said they’d be by us in a few minutes so we killed time by watching the St. Francis High School marching band and by drooling over the sweets in the Main Street Confectionery including some huge rice crispy treats. I especially liked seeing the strawberries freshly dipped in chocolate.

After we met up with Tom and TJ, we headed over towards Fantasyland where we saw Winnie the Pooh and Tigger. As we waited in line, they left and only Pooh returned. Then, the rain started. It was a light drizzle at first, but Pooh soon needed to take refuge under an umbrella.

After this, it was time for the Winnie the Pooh ride followed by the Small World ride, two of JSL’s favorites… and TJ’s too, I believe. At this point, the rain was really coming down. We headed to the Tea Cups and somehow fit the three boys, two grown men, and all of our bags into one cup.

After a little walk, we wound up in Mickey’s Toontown Fair where we looked through Minnie’s house, Mickey’s house and the Judge’s Tent. In the latter, we got to meet Mickey and Minnie again.

As I went with JSL to get the stroller, Tom took TJ and NHL on the Goofy’s Barnstormer rollercoaster. Yes, in the rain!

We were all hungry so we considered lunch options. We opted for Pinocchio’s Village Haus. Unfortunately, after lunch, the rain started coming down really hard. The boys complained, wanting to go to another park instead of heading back to the hotel room. I insisted that we needed to dry off a bit and even resorted to shameless bribery. Approaching the exit to the Magic Kingdom, I stepped in a puddle and the water went through my shoe and sock as if they were made of dry sponges.

A soggy monorail trip later, we were back at the Polynesian where I let the boys pick out some bribery rewards. Once back at the hotel room, we all stripped and I tried to dry our clothes using the hotel hair dryer. I wasn’t too successful and soon became worried because we needed to be at Hollywood Studios that night for a DisneySMMoms event.

I exchanged text messages with B and we got our messages crossed. She needed to head back to the hotel room, but I somehow (in the stress of the event) thought she meant she would meet us in Hollywood Studios. So I got the kids dressed in their mostly dry clothes. Of course, mine were still damp as I focused my efforts on their clothing. We got to Hollywood Studios and waited for B at the Animation Studio.

Of course, she had headed back to the hotel room expecting us to be there. While she got changed and headed to us, we took refuge inside and realized we hit the jackpot. Apparently, when the rains started, they moved all of the Hollywood Studios characters into the Animation Studio. We got signatures from Meeko (#28, Pocahontas was there too, but we got her signature previously), Aladdin and Jasmine (#29 and 30), the Queen of Hearts (#31) and the Queen from Snow White (#32). The latter, NHL mistakenly called “the evil step mother” to which she corrected him that she wasn’t really evil, just misunderstood and not to listen to those lying dwarfs. (She really got into character… perhaps a bit too much for literal children!) We also got our photo taken with the Up characters again (minus Carl Fredicksen).

NHL also found a book that he wanted which showed how to draw all the Disney characters. Since, B was coming soon, I told him to wait until she arrived. Once she did, we talked it over and decided to buy it for him. He was so excited. (Note To B: This might be a good thing to do with NHL during summer vacation!) With our family together again, we headed over to the DisneySMMoms event for our last night at Disney.

I was getting nervous, because we could feel the temperature dropping and the dinner was scheduled to be outside. I was both relieved and troubled when I saw a tweet come through that someone got a seat by a heat lamp. Relieved because Disney had obviously taken steps to protect us from the cold. Troubled because the tweet implied that others were being let in while we were still being kept out. Finally, we were allowed in and we made our way to a table right next to a heat lamp. Score!

The tables all had cool Disney Volunteer themes to them complete with “nutritional labels.”

After a short wait, it was time to eat. There was a lot of food and plenty for a non-meat eater such as myself. You’ll forgive me if I’ve forgotten some of the dish names in the ensuing months, but rest assured that it all tasted great. In our haste to sample all the wonderful food, we neglected to take photos of much of it. Here are some photos that we did take.

After the meal came dessert, of course, and Disney didn’t disappoint. It all was so good, especially the warm brownie tort! Sorry, B

After we were done with dessert, Robert Irvine came out to talk about the Dinner Impossible challenge he had just completed and the Disney volunteers (who the dinner was really about). I’ll admit I was a bit disappointed when, months later upon watching the Dinner Impossible episode, I learned that our food wasn’t really from Robert. Still, given what he made, I think I preferred what Disney offered more.

All during dinner and dessert, we had some lovely converation. Besides sitting with Christina (from CutestKidEver), her husband Tom and TJ, we also got to meet Katie from Katie’s Nesting Spot.

After Robert made his exit, we were treated to a mini-concert by Joe Jonas & Demi Lovato.

It was late at this point, though, and both boys were exhausted so we headed back to our hotel room. Of course, this is when we ran into DaddyDigest only to have JSL hurt his arm by sticking it into some metal poles. Luckily, this injury wasn’t bad and we were able to go right to our hotel for some much-needed sleep.

First, we needed to get breakfast. So we headed to the Polynesian Great Ceremonial House (their main hall) and began surveying our options. After Tom and TJ arrived, I had something selected and we got ready to go. JSL climbed into the stroller and sat down. I began to back up and he decided that this was a good time to get out. He turned around in the seat and, before I could react, slid out of the stroller and slammed his head on the marble floor.

We got some ice for his head, considered going to the ER, but I figured that (despite the outward appearance), it wasn’t that bad. After all, he wasn’t losing consciousness or having any behavior changes. Instead, we took the monorail to Epcot and tried to find the First Aid station to get a better ice pack.

On the way into Epcot, we ran into Rafiki and Mr. Penguin (one of the Penguins from Mary Poppins). Mr. Penguin signed NHL’s autograph book (#26).

At this point, I spoke with Tom. I didn’t want to hold him and TJ up as we searched for the First Aid station. So he and TJ went off to enjoy the park while NHL, JSL and I wandered in search of First Aid. After some wrong turns and dead ends (set up thanks to the Robert Irvine event that was coming up later that day), we found the station and got JSL an ice pack.

While walking back through the park, I noticed that JSL wasn’t keeping his ice pack on. We walked into a store to do some shopping and I promised JSL a toy if he would keep the pack on his forehead. I knew just what to offer since he had been eyeing something a few days prior. I got him a Crush the Turtle and that helped a little.

After this, we made our way to the Character Spot. Remember how I said that TJ had been upset over not being able to say hi to Mickey Mouse? Well, we had found the Character Spot during our last trip to Disney World. Here you get to meet Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto. Not only that, but you wait indoors watching old Disney cartoons during your wait.

Since we had separated from Tom and TJ, and since we hadn’t eaten breakfast yet, I parked the stroller off to the side and I fed the boys. I also ate something myself. JSL ate somewhat well and was acting much more normal even though the bump still looked nasty. Soon Tom and TJ arrived, I parked the stroller outside and we got on line. During our wait, we got a message from the ladies that they were out of the conference for the rest of the day and were coming to meet us. They arrived soon afterwards and we all approached Mickey and Pals. TJ, NHL and even JSL were happy to see (and get their photos taken with) some of their favorite characters.

After a quick lunch at the Electric Umbrella, we decided to head to the Magic Kingdom. On our way out, we saw Daisy and Stitch so we took some photos with them.

Post-Photo Op, we boarded the monorail and were soon at the Magic Kingdom. As we entered the park, we saw Pinocchio. We already had had Daisy and Stitch, but Pinocchio was new so we got his autograph (#27).

After this, we walked around the park for a bit before making our way to Dumbo for a flight with everyone’s favorite big-eared elephant.

Post-Dumbo, the kids enjoyed some time in Pooh’s Playful Spot. The kids had so much fun here that it’s sad to think that this area is no longer in existence.

We left the playful spot, JSL extremely reluctantly, to go on Small World again. Then it was on to Pirates of the Caribbean, after which TJ was happily sailing the SS Tom looking for islands with treasure.

All too soon, it was time to leave the Magic Kingdom. We needed to get back to the hotel room to prepare for that evening’s festivities.

One dessert in particular stood out. It was a warm brownie torte that tasted like it was uncooked warm brownie batter (and I mean that in the best possible way). Here’s a photo, although Disney Food Blog has a better one.

We had gotten a couple plates of these and when the boys (who by this point in the night were exhausted) refused it, I ate the second plate. For some reason, my chocolate-brownie-lust overpowered my brain and I only realized too late that I had eaten B’s plate! I vowed to recreate the dish as soon as I saw how it was made on Dinner Impossible. Of course, once the episode aired, it became apparent that this dish wasn’t part of the show. I’m on my own now in recreating it, though I have a few ideas.

My Aloha Friday question for this week is: Have you ever recreated a dish you’ve eaten out somewhere? If so, how successful were you? If you haven’t, is there a particular dish that you’d love to be able to recreate?

Oh, and if anyone has any pointers for recreating this, I’d be happy to hear them.

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #41

It was quite nice. I’m a fan of Pop Century, but the rooms do tend to run small. (Can’t expect much different from a Value Resort.) The Polynesian’s rooms were huge by comparison. The one criticism I’d have is that all of the buildings looked the same. We had trouble finding our way to our building. At least the Pop Century had different looking buildings.

We marvelled at the room for awhile but had to get ready to go to ESPN Wide World of Sports. We caught up with Christina (CutestKidEver), her husband Tom and son TJ by the bus stop and took the bus with them. This wasn’t your usual Disney bus. The strollers weren’t folded up and carried on board. They were stowed underneath (enough room to stow them unfolded) and we sat an nice, soft seats.

At ESPN Wide World of Sports, we were directed where to go. B and Christina went to the Disney SM Moms area to listen to some presentations while Tom, TJ, NHL, JSL and I went to the "dads and kids" area. They had taken a few of the fields and set up some games to keep the kids busy. They had basketball, football, soccer, volleyball and other sports for the kids to play.

The kids had a blast running around chasing balls. The only glitch was when I went to kick a soccer ball. The grass was slightly wet and my feet went right out from under me and I landed on my read end/back. Getting up, oddly enough, my first thought was "B’s going to kill me if I got grass stains on these jeans!" My second thought was "Am I injured." Luckily, there were no grass stains or injuries.

Soon, it was getting dark and time for us to head in to eat. We made our way to the dining area, parked the stroller and found the table the girls had saved for us. Going with the sports theme, they had peanuts and Cracker Jacks for us to snack on.

Alcoholic beverages, too… trying to get the moms drunk?

The food was mostly meat-based (hamburgers/hot dogs) so there wasn’t much for me, but I made do. Burger bun + cheese meant for cheeseburgers + tomatoes = cheese sandwich. Some fries with cheese sauce & fruit and you’ve got a meal. Later on, they had ice cream including Mickey Bars. YUM!

Of course, it wouldn’t be Disney if characters didn’t make an appearance. Pluto, Mickey, Minnie and others were on hand. Unfortunately, not all of them stopped by our table. TJ seemed upset about that, but I knew that we would be going with him to Epcot the next day so I told him that I knew where he could go to see Mickey, hoping that would make him feel better. (Nobody should be sad at Disney!)

It was late so we gathered our things and started out… until I couldn’t find my camera. I ran back to the table and there it was underneath my chair! WHEW! Two lost things recovered in the same day.

With that crisis averted, we left ESPN and headed for the bus back to our hotel. On the way out, though, we were handed some ESPN hats. Very nice touch. Though it was late, NHL and TJ didn’t conk out but enjoyed some time together on the bus ride back.

Then we went back to our hotel rooms and got some sleep. We all had a big day tomorrow. B at Disney Social Media Moms and me with the kids in the parks!

We took the bus from the Pop Century resort to Hollywood Studios. From there, we could have taken a boat ride to the Boardwalk, but the boat didn’t look like it was running right then. Instead of waiting, we decided to walk. This was a bit of a mistake. It was pretty chilly to begin with and walking alongside the water just seemed to encourage strong gusts of wind.

After what seemed like hours (really 36 minutes), we made it to the Boardwalk and the Beach Club Resort. This resort holds special meaning for B and me. Nine years ago (this June), we went to Disney World on our honeymoon and stayed at the Beach Club Resort. It was a nice trip down memory lane even if we didn’t stroll through it very long.

We checked in and quickly got seated. Cape May is a character breakfast. Donald, Goofy, and Minnie were all on hand in beach-wear greeting kids and adults alike. Again, this brought back memories. During our honeymoon, we got a photo of B posing with Goofy. So you just *know* I had to get a "nine years later" shot!

Of course, the boys loved seeing the characters too. JSL, perhaps a little too much. He didn’t eat much of anything because he was constantly looking around to see where the characters were.

The food itself was very good. They had the usual breakfast fare: eggs, bagels with lox, Mickey waffles, muffins, etc. My favorite, though, was the french toast. It was made as a baked casserole with the layers of egg soaked bread dripping with syrup. Once I’m off my diet, I might have to replicate this!

After our meal, we did something that we enjoyed doing during our honeymoon. No, not that! I meant that we walked over to Epcot’s back enterance near the United Kingdom. I immediately got us some Fast Passes for Soarin’ while B, NHL and JSL headed to The Living Seas. At the Seas, we saw lots of fish and attended Turtle Talk with Crush. This year, Crush picked NHL to ask a question.

I’ll admit, I cringed a bit. NHL has a tendancy to not be clear and direct when he wants to ask a question. He’ll stop, start, and go off on tangents as if his brain is struggling to pick the best way of asking *while* he is asking. I was impressed (and proud), though. Not only did he ask clearly and directly, but his question was a very good one. He asked Crush whether it was dark in his shell. Crush answered that he doesn’t know. He explained that land turtles can go in their shell but sea turtles can’t. I told NHL as we left how proud I was of him.

After the Seas, we went to the Imagination! to see Journey Into Imagination With Figment. We all had fun on this last year and this year was no different.

Now, it was time for Soarin’. On the way there, we enountered Mary Poppins. She was very nice and talked to the boys, took some photos with them and signed their autograph book (autograph #25).

NHL and I went on Soarin’ while JSL and B waited. This was lots of fun, just like last year. Afterwards, the plan *was* to go to lunch, but plans change. The Circle Of Life Lion King movie was ready to play and the kids wanted to see it. JSL was a bit freaked out by how loud it was but he stayed in my lap and didn’t cry. NHL enjoyed seeing it.

Next, we were going to leave (again) but decided to go on the Living With The Land ride. This is where you get to see some of the facilities Disney uses to grow produce and fish to use in their parks. (Check out the Hidden Mickey in the shrimp tank.) NHL was very impressed with everything and even JSL loved seeing the plants. I highly recommend going on this ride. In fact, looking back on the photos is good inspiration for our garden that we’re growing now.

Now it was lunch time. Really. No putting it off any more. So we headed out of Epcot. Along the way, JSL asked for some water so I retrieved his water bottle. Except I couldn’t find it. It wasn’t in any pocket. A sudden sinking realization hit us. We left his Nalgene water bottle in Cape May after breakfast! We headed over to a store where they called Cape May ahead of us. When they couldn’t get anyone, we simply walked over there. I walked ahead while B pushed the boys in the stroller. When I got there, they checked and found out that Heather saves everything she finds left on the tables. Sure enough, one of those things was JSL’s water bottle! Thanks, Heather, you saved us!

With all of our belongings now back with us, we hopped on the boat to Hollywood Studios and then went back to the Pop Century. We ate a quick lunch (including one last piece of Tie Dye Cheesecake *sniff* *sniff*) before going to our room to pack up.

Luckily, we didn’t need to lug all of our suitcases to the Polynesian. Disney sent someone to take them for us. With the bags in transit, we sadly said farewell to Pop Century and took a bus to the Magic Kingdom. From there, we hopped on the Monorail to the Polynesian and on to the rest of our Disney SM Moms adventure!

After our small world ride, we battled the rain to get to Haunted Mansion. Last time, JSL fell asleep the minute this ride started. This time, he stayed awake longer, but still didn’t like it. NHL liked it, but I don’t think this was a favorite of his. I guess spooky ghosts appeal to older kids. Then, we rode on Pirates of the Carribean. We began to notice something. The rainy weather meant that people were leaving the park. Less people meant less lines. A ride that would normally have an hour wait suddenly had a 15 minute or less wait. So by braving the rain, we got to go on more rides than were it sunny.

Post-pirates, we walked back to Tomorrowland where we went on the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor. Last year, we went on this, but we didn’t have a texting plan. This meant that I didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to text in our own joke for the monsters to use during the show. This year, we had a texting plan. NHL had told a funny knock knock joke a few weeks prior, so I texted the joke in. Unfortunately, the joke wasn’t used, but we did have a blast during the show.

Of course, thanks to the rain, we were able to go right back in when we were finished. This time around, I noticed that I had sent in the text message incorrectly. So I sent the same joke in, the proper way, and got a text message back from "monster central" saying that they liked the joke. Sure enough, during the show, they named NHL and used his joke! For the record, his joke was: "Knock Knock." "Who’s There?" "Ivan" "Ivan, who?" "I van to make you laugh!" After our second Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor session (having powered Monstropolis for a good, long time), we saved the galaxy again on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin.

Next, it was potty break time. I waited for B and NHL in Mickey’s Star Traders with JSL to dry off a bit. And who else do you think came in? Push, the talking garbage can! I captured a video of him (which I’ll post another day) and then off I was to change JSL. Once all that was taken care of, we went on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. This was a nice, sit-down, *DRY* tour of Tomorrowland.

After this, we saw that the lines for Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin were short and… I feel like I’m repeating myself. Yes, we rode it again. This time, I got an amazingly high score. Don’t ask me how. As we entered the ride, I shot at something and then, all of a sudden, I had over 100,000 points. Maybe there’s a hidden target with a high point value. Maybe there was a bug in the system. Either way, my final score was 213,900. Don’t wake my word for it, though.

Next, we spun on the teacups. JSL and NHL both love this ride. They spin really fast and laugh all the while.

Our final attraction of the day was Mickey’s PhilharMagic. NHL loves this every time. He knows all the songs and loves seeing the characters popping out at him. Unfortunately, JSL, as I’ve said before, hated seeing things popping out at him. Poor little guy didn’t like this show at all.

The day was nearing its close, but we still had to eat dinner. Our advance dining reservations were at Tony’s Town Square Restaurant. Tony’s, of course, is based off the restaurant from Lady and the Tramp and so has many appropriate decorations. We arrived and were quickly seated near the fountain.

NHL had the Mickey shaped ravioli, this time in Alfredo sauce. He wasn’t too sure about that until I told him Alfredo was cheese sauce. Now he’s a big Alfredo fan. JSL liked it too as he ate some of NHL’s pasta. B and I both had Salmon atop Orzo with Asparagus. As I ate some of the Orzo, I realized that there was a whole roasted garlic clove in it! Score! I love roasted garlic. And there was another. And another. After I ate five of them, I decided to count how many there were. By my count, the plate had contained nearly 20 roasted garlic cloves! As I said, I love roasted garlic, but even I have my limits. I ate a little less than half of them before deciding to stop. (They were really good spread on the bread. *YUM!*)

The meal was great as was the desserts. Lemon cake for me and strawberry cheesecake for B. NHL didn’t want dessert, so he got some fruit to take back to the hotel room. With our bellies full, we left Tony’s into the damp evening to go back to the Pop Century for our last night there. The next day, we’d be moving into the Polynesian and would finally be starting Disney Social Media Moms!